By Becky Kiser
Hays Post
By the end of a two-hour meeting Tuesday night, USD 489 Superintendent Dean Katt had a list of items the school board negotiating team and the Hays NEA union team had discussed and will continue refining.
“We’ve talked about maintenance of standards, fair dismissal, grievance, leave and a little bit about concurrent credit,” Katt said.
He told both groups he will find “language for a progressive discipline plan for teachers” for further discussion at the next negotiations meeting.
In a proposal from the school board about corrective actions for board policy violations, the words “inadvertently” and “repeatedly” regarding violations have been removed.
“This means a teacher could be fired immediately for making one mistake,” countered H-NEA co-chairperson Kim Schneweis.
“What is the purpose of that?” she asked. “So you can fire people more easily?”
“No, it’s just to simplify the contract language,” answered school board member Greg Schwartz. “USD 489 is a multi-faceted corporation; we should be professional.”
The leave policy continues to be debated. The board supports switching to Paid Time Off while teachers’ representatives want separate funeral and serious illness leave.
“If you only have one block of leave, it’s easier accounting,” Schwartz said.
Toward the end of the meeting, Schwartz suggested something new.
“What about a board policy review committee?”
“Any time we have a board policy, it’s got to go to the ‘teachers board policy review committee’ and they get to have a report that’s provided to the board members who read it…we did that with a lot of the agenda items–what are the staff implications and what happens?”
“They used to have the ‘Superintendent’s Council,” interjected H-NEA co-chairperson Kathy Wagoner.
“Teachers would meet with the superintendent in a morning meeting. I think a lot of those issues were discussed in that.”
USD 489 board attorney Bill Jeter said “it might be a good idea but should be a non-binding agreement.”
The negotiating teams are scheduled to meet again Tuesday, June 9, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Rockwell Administration Center Toepfer Board Room, 323 W. 11th.
The meeting will be aired live by Hays High School on Eagle Cable TV Channel 13.